Murder trial continues

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — Joe Williams, 49, was living in a Pearl Street Southwest rental house April 13 that featured an AK-47 assault rifle in the basement, a shotgun under the couch and doors that were always locked.

A man stopped by that night to buy drugs from Eugene Henderson, who owned the AK-47 and had been living in the home for a couple of months.

Henderson borrowed the drug buyer’s car and left in it with two other men, Eugene Cumberbatch, 27, of Front Street Southwest, and Marcus Yager, 22, of Vine Street Northeast, Williams testified Tuesday.

Williams’ testimony took place on the second day of the aggravated-murder trial of Cumberbatch in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

The trial resumes today.

Cumberbatch and Henderson, 26, of Warren, are accused of killing Lloyd McCoy Jr., 11, and Marvin Chaney, 26, by firing guns into a house on Wick Street Southeast on April 13.

If convicted of the two counts of aggravated murder and other charges, Cumberbatch could be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Henderson is set to go to trial Nov. 2 on the same charges as Cumberbatch.

Williams knew Cumberbatch because Cumberbatch lived in the house “from time to time,” Williams said, adding that he also knew Yager.

Henderson, Cumberbatch and Yager left in the drug buyer’s car while Williams and the drug buyer watched a Cleveland Cavaliers game on TV, Williams said.

Williams unlocked the door, and Henderson walked back in the house a while later, took the AK-47 with him and left again, Williams said.

Later, as Henderson, Cumberbatch and Yager walked into the house together, Henderson was livid, yelling at Cumberbatch about losing Henderson’s cell phone.

Williams said he knew something bad had happened, but he didn’t know how bad until a news report appeared on television saying that a drive-by shooting on Wick Street Southeast had occurred around 9:50 p.m. — in between the time the men left with the AK-47 and when they returned arguing.

Police recovered a cell phone and sunglasses at the crime scene.

“That’s when I knew,” Williams said. Henderson and Cumberbatch were involved in the shooting, Williams said of the television report.

Williams also testified that he had been part of conversations in the weeks leading up to April 13 that involved Henderson and Cumberbatch talking about Chaney’s having stolen $3,000 and crack cocaine from Henderson.

Only later did Williams realize that two of his own young relatives — Joshua McCoy, 3, and Lloyd McCoy Jr. — had been hit by the gunfire and that Lloyd was in critical condition in an area hospital.

Lloyd died April 21 in St. Elizabeth Health Center from complications of a pierced lung. Joshua McCoy was shot in the arm and has recovered. Chaney died at the scene from a gunshot wound to the chest.

Williams eventually went to police to tell them what he knew.

Yager also testified Tuesday that he was in the borrowed car when Henderson stopped it in front a house on Wick Street and fired the AK-47 at McCoy’s home for roughly 30 seconds.

Police recovered 24 bullet casings at the scene, indicating that 24 shots had been fired. Some of the shots went completely through the one-story home.

Yager said Cumberbatch fired a 9 mm handgun one time at the house and that it jammed after that, so he threw it into the back seat of the car. Yager said he was hiding between the two front seats of the car and didn’t fire any weapons.

He testified that the three men went looking for Chaney that night and believed he was home when they saw his silver car in the driveway.

Henderson went back to Pearl Street, picked up the AK-47, put it in his lap and drove back to Wick Street, Yager said.

When asked by Chris Becker, assistant county prosecutor, what happened next, Yager said Henderson “shot the house up.”

When Becker asked what Cumberbatch did, Yager said, “He shot, too, apparently.”

Becker said in his opening statement to the jury that investigators don’t have any proof that Cumberbatch’s gunfire hit any of the three victims but that Cumberbatch aided in the killings. Becker said DNA found on a cell phone and sunglasses found at the scene point to Henderson and Cumberbatch.

Under cross-examination by Joseph Fritz, Cumberbatch’s attorney, Yager said he initially denied being involved in the shootings but told the truth after “the realization that a little boy died.”

Yager, who has been in Trumbull County Jail since April 21, pleaded guilty earlier to involuntary manslaughter and obstruction of justice and believes he will spend between one and five years in prison when sentenced later, he said.

Brittnay McCoy and her sister Chelise McCoy, who were both inside the house but uninjured, also testified Tuesday. The man who went to the Pearl Street house to buy drugs is in the U.S. military, so his testimony was videotaped and played to the jury on a television.

runyan@vindy.com